So Much For That

Well, we saw the Gophers true colors today. Playing a glorified high school team in Northwestern in a game that on paper they should have won easily, the fighting Goofs found a way to find the loss column. Yes the same NW team, that was:

• without their starting QB,
• without their best offensive player - Tyrell Sutton (apparently they have no trust in their backup since the ball never left the QB's hands in the 4th quarter)
• only using about two offensive plays, QB option left and QB option right
• with about four defensive players that entered the game injured or were injured during the first half
• coming off a loss to the mighty IU Hoosiers.

This was not enough for the Gophers to find a way to win and keep alive at least one fans (me) Rose Bowl hopes.

I hate to question someone's heart and resolve but didn't you find it interesting that Eric Decker was still in the game at the end when he could barely walk and above that, Weber was still targeting him? It looked like a valient effort until he dropped the pass that turned into the winning interception. So much for the Arthur Ashe award.

When you take a step back though this isn't a huge shocker. The Gophers were 7-1 largely because they entered the game +16 in TO ratio and the score in this game was tied because of a pick six in the 1st half. It was only a matter of time before the law of averages was going to come back and bite them there. They also have absolutely no running game and as you saw at the end, they are incredibly overly-dependent on Eric Decker to move the chains (I know what else you are thinking, but I won't go there with the special teams).

Hopefully they can bounce back and win at least two of their next three and get to the Outback Bowl.

By the way, if you watched the end of the Wisconsin/Michigan St. game what was Bielema thinking calling TO when Michigan St. was scrambling to get their field goal unit on. Is he trying to get fired?